MEDICAL PLANTS. 4,'J 



some of the most valuable to be found in our own 

 Materia Medica, of which the government cannot 

 fail to know, but until they are thought worth col- 

 lecting, of what value can it be to add to the list ? 



Colocynth, of two kinds, abounds here the true 

 Cucumis Colocynthis and C. Pseudo colocynthis. 

 I have made extract from the former, quite equal 

 to that obtained from the Levant apple. In those 

 severe cases of Fever, common in Gujerat, where 

 the torpid state of the peristaltic motion of the 

 bowels is difficult to overcome or to rouse, I have 

 found this extract very useful. 



Senna, the two kinds used in medicine Cassia 

 lanceolata and obovata I have elsewhere described 

 as existing in Gujerat. I find they may be culti- 

 vated with the greatest facility ; my gardeners are 

 now picking the leaves from about four beegas, 

 sown about the middle of August. The seed was 

 drilled into the ground, and the only attention 

 required by the plant, is loosening the ground, and 

 weeding two or three times when it is young. 



The art practised for preserving the purgative pro- 

 perty in the leaves I was not aware of, till by acci- 

 dent I found on inquiry that some that I had sent to 

 Bombay had been pronounced by Dr. McLennan to 



